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Friday, October 31, 2008

In the spirit of procrastination (articles due? piles of books to read? beds to make? laundry?):

Bold the things you’ve done and will admit to.

1. Started your own blog2. Slept under the stars3. Played in a band (on Rock Band at least)4. Visited Hawaii5. Watched a meteor shower6. Given more than you can afford to charity7. Been to Disneyland/world8. Climbed a mountain9. Held a praying mantis10. Sang a solo11. Bungee jumped12. Visited Paris13. Watched a lightning storm at sea14. Taught yourself an art from scratch15. Adopted a child16. Had food poisoning17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown your own vegetables19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight22. Hitch hiked 23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill24. Built a snow fort25. Held a lamb26. Gone skinny dipping27. Run a Marathon28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse30. Watched a sunrise or sunset31. Hit a home run32. Been on a cruise33. Seen Niagara Falls in person34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors35. Seen an Amish community36. Taught yourself a new language37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person 39. Gone rock climbing40. Seen Michelangelo’s David41. Sung karaoke42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant44. Visited Africa45. Walked on a beach by moonlight46. Been transported in an ambulance47. Had your portrait painted48. Gone deep sea fishing49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling52. Kissed in the rain53. Played in the mud54. Gone to a drive-in theater55. Been in a movie56. Visited the Great Wall of China 57. Started a business58. Taken a martial arts class59. Visited Russia60. Served at a soup kitchen 61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies62 Gone whale watching63. Gotten flowers for no reason64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma65. Gone sky diving66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp67. Bounce a check68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial71. Eaten Caviar 72. Pieced a quilt73. Stood in Times Square74. Toured the Everglades75. Been fired from a job76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London77. Broken a bone78. Been on a speeding motorcycle79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person80. Published a book81. Visited the Vatican82. Bought a brand new car83. Walked in Jerusalem84. Had your picture in the newspaper85. Read the entire Bible86. Visited the White House87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 88. Had chickenpox89. Saved someone’s life90. Sat on a jury91. Met someone famous 92. Joined a book club 93. Lost a loved one94. Had a baby95. Seen the Alamo in person96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake97. Been involved in a law suit98. Owned a cell phone99. Been stung by a bee

Have you ever? Let me know if you join in, so I can read your answers.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

When you were a kid, did you go out on Mischief Night?Umm once or twice.. lol

What is your favorite trick-or-treat candy?Kit Kats & Almond Joys

Have you ever seen a ghost?Seen? No. Heard/experience? Yes.

The most memorable costume you ever wore?My plastic suit & mask that was supposed to make me look like Casper the friendly ghost. Ya know those costumes we used to have in the cardboard boxes with the clear plastic window that you could see the mask through?

Do you carve a happy or a scary face on the pumpkin?Whatever the kids want. But this year we didn't carve anything. :(

Do you dress up on Halloween?Not since I was about 14.

Any cooking or baking you do for Halloween?Not specifically for Halloween, unless we have a bake sale or something.

Have you ever been to The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland or Disneyworld?No.

Any element of the season you don’t like?The fact that it is getting colder each year earlier.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The delightful Damama is participating in a pay it forward plan. I signed up and now I am paying it forward. Let the fun begin!

Here are the rules: The exchange focuses on doing an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and pay it forward in their own way. This is how it works... I am going to agree to send something fun, inspiring or uplifting to the first 3 blog owners who post a comment on this entry (please leave your email address if I don't all ready have it.).

In turn you will then post about this on your blog, link to me, then send something to the first three people who sign up to play along through your blog. There are no cost restraints, but don't go crazy! The little something you send can be something you made, bought, were given or found. No biggie, just a gift that will make the person smile. Maybe something unique from where you live? And remember that kindness don't have to involve money; there are untold ways to help others every single day, everywhere you go - just look around."

I signed up at Spookiez Spot and will be sending a small gift out to the next three people who sign up and post their own pay it forward :) Be sure to include your email address so I can contact you and a link to your Pay It Forward post!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Even though we didn't do too much (outside of the house), but it just seems like it went fast. We did get a good bit of work done this week though.

Both kids have finished up the first Key to Decimals book. They'll start #2 next week. They've been breezing through the Daily Grams nicely. They want to finish these up so they don't have to work in this book the rest of the year (well for half of it anyways, since they only have the last half of the book to do). But at the pace they are going, they'll be finished about the middle of Nov. We started our Explorers/Lewis & Clark study this week. We read up on some of the explorers in the Americas and did a worksheet on Columbus regarding facts & myths.

And then we started with our Science program. So far I am really liking it. We're using Joy Hakim's Story of Science Aristotle Leads the Way and the Teacher & Student Quest guides. We've read through the first 2 chapters of the book and did the first 2 lessons. The kids are really asking a lot of questions and paying attention. They do like science, so I am hoping this will keep them interested.

We also had another Earth Scouts meeting this week. I was reading on another blog about a group that went on a lantern walk to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox, and I really liked the idea. So we used recycled jars to make out lanterns and we'll be planning a lantern walk soon. The kids really had a fun time of pasting tissue paper on the jars, and they all turned out very nice.

I was told about about called Runemarks by Joanne Harris that sounded good. So I picked it up from the library and then downloaded the audio book from our library as well. We read through the first "book" and my kids really did not like it. They complained every time I would tell them we'd be listening. So I'll just take that back to the library. We're going to start reading George's Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy and Stephen Hawking. Hopefully they'll enjoy this more. If not then too damn bad. LOL

Not too much going on next week aside from a Halloween party and of course Trick-or-Treat night. We need to get to the store this weekend and pick up a few items.

We had a good week. Lots of activities. Lots of running. Glad its over. :)

Monday was a party for a HSing friends daughter, Kate. She just turned 9, but adores Amanda and another older girl from our group, Rachel. So of course, they were invited. hehe The kids had a great time, even Jake who didn't want to go thinking no boys would be there. They had popcorn, and veggies & dip, and apples, cheese, lots of drinks, and then cake. The girls all had fun playing with beads, tattoos, and colored hair spray.

Tuesday was food co-op pickup day. My mom and I rand to Target to get photos Amanda needed printed for photography class. then I ended up getting at co-op early, so was able to help unload and sort things when the truck arrived. I had only gotten 3 items, and was to get produce as well.. but that truck was late as well and had to get it later. As to the photos, if you didn't know it yet.. on Flickr, you have pictures sent to Target from your account and printed for just 20 cents per 4x6 photo! Amanda's turned out really good. So we spent Tuesday evening putting them in a little photo/scrapbook album she had gotten for her birthday.

Wednesday was photography class. But Amanda woke up feeling bad, she was complaining of a bad headache. So she didn't go. Then later in the day she told me she didn't really want to go back because she doesn't care for the guy teaching. She just gets an uncomfortable feeling about him. She's only "met" him once, but I don't want to not listen to her feelings about people. So, I need to get a post sent to our group that she'll be dropping this class. I am planning on doing something else, I guess starting our own group.

Thursday, we got to stay home finally. But had to do some cleaning as the kids had a friend coming over. He comes every Thursday before co-op. He says this is going to be the day he always comes. LOL

Friday was of course co-op day. It went well. First class, Wizardology, we did some reading. Some of the boys needed to finish their wands. They all were to write spells in Haiku form. So they were shared. Jake made a spell to cook scrambled eggs. Luke did a cleaning spell. Jayme did an attack spell that could also be used to feed yourself (along with wand movements), and Zach made a spell to transform a human into an animal. The spells were quite funny. Kitchen Chemistry we did a thinking experiment from this Blog: Think! We did the Apple one from week 4. The kids had fun. Friday night was Mom's Night Out. 8 of us mom met at Tara's home for an evening of good food and conversation. it was a nice evening. But you can tell all of us were worn out from the summer.. by 9:30 we were all yawning I think. LOL I got home a little before 10:30. At the beginning of summer, we all went to Jessica's and stayed until after 1am! So that's how much the summer has worn us all out. ;)

Saturday we took off early and went to Philly for the day. We wanted to see the Pirates exhibit before it ends on Nov. 2nd. It was ok, not as good as the Star Wars for sure. And I was bit upset because we weren't allowed to take any photos. But we had a nice time regardless. Bore going into the Pirates we walked around the Franklin a bit. My kids have been all through the place, but Amanda's friend Phoebe hadn't. So we went into the Heart area. Jake walked up to the guy doing the heart demo and asked if he could touch the brain he had out. LOL Of course he said go for it, so Jake did. Eeew! Then he was telling Jake more about the brain. I learned some things, such as different parts of your brain store different types of words. Nouns in one section, verbs in another, etc. I truly never knew that. Then he had Jake do an experiment. He put on these goggles that were a bit funky, they were kind of like swirls on the lens instead of clear. So he had Jake touch his nose, then a penny, over and over until he could do it fairly quickly without missing. Then he started moving it until he could do the same. Then while touching nose then penny, back and forth, he told him to remove the goggles. He of coursed then missed the penny. LOL It was cool how your brain would adjust to the different situation of looking through unclear glasses, then having to adjust again once you can see normally again. He had fun.

So today, we are just relaxing. Plus it's my birthday, and I don't feel like doing much at all. But of course, I say this right at supper time and everyone is going to whine about food. *sigh* But in was a good week. We finished up most of our work for the week. I'll post in a few what we have up for this week. I need to get some of the pictures from yesterday as well and upload.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

I like to blog about what I have planned for each week. Then when I go back at the end of the week and blog about what we did, I can compare the 2. This way I have a better idea if I am planning too much or little. So anyways..

Friday, October 10, 2008

This week seemed to go fast! I guess 'cause we kept pretty busy with school things. I am proud of us, because we did our week EVERY single day. :) I'm a slacker at times, so this is a big deal for me.

The kids really do not enjoy Grammar/English/Language Arts (whatever you wanna call it), and I just want to be sure they know something. So they don't have a lot to do this year. Just a book (maybe more later in the school year) of Word Roots and the last half of the Daily Grams Jr/Sr. So since they hate it so much, we do lots of extras each day just so they finish it early. By Wed next week, they'll be finished the Word Roots books. they did 4 pages a day. Then we'll start the Daily Grams. And these literally take less than 5 minutes per day/lesson, so they do another 4 pages of these a day. So that should be finished off by mid Nov. They are happy knowing that they'll be done then with that stuff. And for L. Arts then, we'll just be doing lots of book reading (with some study guides now and then).

And hopefully if they continue with at least 3 lessons/pages per day of the Key To math books, they'll be finished with the Percents books by the end of Nov. as well. then after the Holidays we start with MUS Pre-Algebra.

Amanda missed photography class this week, since she wasn't feeling good. But aside from that, we had no outings planned. So it was a nice calm week. :) Next week is going to be busy thought. Only 1 day we have no where to be. *sigh*

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Phlour/Flour -- I guess when my kids were littler, I just didn't let them bake with me enough. (I will admit, I didn't bake with them often, because I am not always very patient.) But anyways, when we do bake.. I swear to dog my 15 yo turns into a damn 3 yo again. She can NOT scoop out flour without playing in it. And most times, she has to dust her face with it also. It'd be funnier if she was doing this while baking with someone else. hehe

We are planning a day trip to Philly on the 18th. I've been wanting to go see the Pirates exhibit before it ends in Nov. We basically go just for the special exhibits, which is why we are members. Saves us a bunch. Amanda is a tad upset that we aren't spending the night... but we just don't have the extra money now to do so. I do plan to stay over sometime soon hopefully because we want to visit the Adventure Aquarium in NJ as well. But for now, just a day trip. I think Amanda is inviting a friend along.

And lastly Photos... I am such a slacker when it comes to taking pictures. I always forget when we do cool projects to snap pictures. At co-op I am always so busy teaching, I never get shots of the kids doing their kitchen chemistry experiments. I don't EVER have the camera on me while out and about when something really fucking awesome happens. I need to remind myself to always keep the camera with me. *sigh* And I never get really cool, candid shots of my kids. (Same as mentioned a second ago.. never have the camera at the right times.) Oh well, what can ya do? Bitch about it then move on right. :)

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I think. The other site I was blogging at doesn't seem very active anymore. So I figured I'd just come back over here. I can edit my blogger page easier. Plus the oldest brat can help me over here, I think.

And blogger feels more "grown-up" kinda. Sometimes on other sites I don't feel like I can say what I really want to, because I don't want to offend anyone. I know, they were my personal blog spaces, but I still felt like that. And I don't want to. I want a place where I feel as comfortable as I do in my own home. So in blogger-land, I am pretty much an unknown.. so I can do and say whatever the hell I want. :) Plus I want a space that, for me, is secular.

So anyways, whatever.. I am just talking to myself again. So for now, I shall be here. Right here. On Blogger.